TALES FROM MY YELLOW ROOM

09/22/22

WELCOME! Thank you for visiting!

My memoir,  Tales from my Yellow Room will be in your hands just after New Year. Here is a little snippet...

I met a lovely man about my own age in a hotel bar in London. Yes, I went to bars alone and out to eat - otherwise, I never would have gone anywhere.

It was charming that he brought his bicycle with him to make traveling around the country easier. We became buddies, with no real romance, and it was decided I should visit him in Dallas as soon as I could.

Despite disability and societal norms, I had been lucky to travel quite a bit in my twenties.

I visited Italy, Holland, Madrid, Copenhagen, and Dublin, for business purposes, when I worked for Grand Metropolital Hotels Ltd., based in London. These were places where we had satellite offices, and I trained people how to use our new reservation system.

This was a plumb job, which I held onto despite a major error on my part! Prior to the launch of the reservation system, I was charged with sending information to each of our overseas offices.

Unfortunately, I neglected to make sure to send materials in the appropriate language to the various offices. There was yelling!

On my own, I spent time in France, the Canary Islands, Gibraltar, Morocco, and, of course, Germany. Germany, however, was subsidized by my work for Ralph Secretan’s firm.

These trips were possible because my rent and other living expenses were relatively modest and the rate of exchange for the British pound was advantageous.

I had slim times too, of course. I remember eating semolina pudding, homemade, each day for a week.

There was also discomfort during the Three-Day Week, in the winter of 1973-74, when Prime Minister Edward Heath introduced a measure resticting electricity which affected all of us one way or another.

Power became very unreliable with many blackouts. This was before computers, so no warnings...

Tales from my Yellow Room (c) 2022 Marilyn Grunwald